Parents of Young Online Socializers Have Gift of Time

I was invited to speak about kids and technology at our elementary school PTO meeting the other night -- a stark change from the usual law enforcement officer who scares the heck out of us parents with stories of pedophiles and predators lurking behind cyber walls to approach our kids.
What I tell parents is while those concerns are valid, most kids are using social networks to keep in touch with friends they know in real life. The bigger concerns are how kids handle themselves online, how they present themselves online, and how they are treated and treat others online.
Parents of kids in elementary school have the gift of time. Kids who are spending hours on sites like Webkinz, Club Penguin, and Barbiegirls.com are learning how to play on social networks. Sure, they're decorating rooms and playing games, but they are also involved in limited chat with other anonymous members. This is the training ground for socializing online that teens who paved the way with the first MySpace and Facebook pages never had. That's a good thing.
Never pass up the chance to sit down with your Webkinz (or other community play site) devotees and ask what they do when they're online, and what they like about what they're doing. If there's chat going on, talk to them about what they chat about. It's a great opportunity to start talking about how important it is to be as nice to people online as it is in person.
All of these kids' sites have lots of information for parents about safety and chat. I've linked to them below for more information.